The biblical Gospel of John casts itself as a memoir of “the disciple whom Jesus loved”--a mysterious figure who allegedly watched Jesus die on the cross and stepped in his empty tomb. But in this engaging and groundbreaking study, Hugo Méndez argues that the text is something else: a gospel written by a single disguised author that pioneered an entire library of falsely authored works in its wake.

The author of John believed that Jesus was a divine being who came to earth to transform humans into divine beings. To encourage others to embrace this startling vision, that author composed a Gospel rich with invented materials-one in which Jesus communicates the author's views through so many cryptic dialogues and symbolic gestures meant for readers to decipher. And to make this revisionary portrait of Jesus plausible, the author disguised his identity, attributing his Gospel to an invented, shadowy disciple gifted with supernatural insight and able to retrieve lost memories of Jesus. In this respect, the Gospel of John is comparable to the so-called apocryphal gospels produced in the second century--works such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas.

Critically, Méndez also argues that the invention of this eyewitness was not a self-contained event, but the genesis of a new and vibrant literary tradition. As the enigmatic disciple of the Gospel was folded into the same collective memory as Peter and Paul, his identity became a viable mask for other authors with different motivations. And in time, many such writers--among them, the authors of 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Revelation, the Apocryphon of John, the Epistula Apostolorum-co-opted this invented eyewitness, repurposing him for new agendas and weaving countless new afterlives for him. The Gospel of John: A New History traces this arc, showing how a single act of disguised authorship inspired a rich literary tradition and dramatically shaped twenty centuries of Christian culture.

Hugo Méndez is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of The Cult of Stephen in Jerusalem: Inventing a Patron Martyr and co-author of The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 8th ed.

Introduction

Part I: The Gospel

1. The Hidden Author

2. Why John Was Written

3. Symbols and Signs

4. An Apocryphal Gospel

Part II: Afterlives

5. Invented Letters

6. Becoming John

Bibliography
Index